25-year-old Egyptian legend Mohamed Salah managed to guide Liverpool to a historic achievement after reaching the UEFA Champions League final following their narrow win over AS Roma on aggregate to keep the dream of winning the Ballon d’Or alive.

Having qualified to the Champions League final a day before, Real Madrid helped guarantee that there would be at least one African footballer in the final, Moroccan starlet Ashraf Hakimi.

The pair are joined by Senegal international Sadio Mane, who has scored nine UEFA Champions League goals this season as well as Cameroon’s Joel Matip. Should the Liverpool trio win the final, they will become the joint-third Liverpool footballers to win the title. Meanwhile Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi will become the first African Real Madrid player to win the title.

As the Africans prepare to go head-to-head later this month, we look at the previous 17 champions in history.